Ripped, six pack abs may get admiring looks at the beach or by the pool, but in my world as an athlete & fitness consultant to both the average joe and athletes, what comes first and counts the most is not looks, but function. Stated differently, I’m talking about athleticism. Function is the ability to use those abdominal muscles for a reason, such as excelling in sports.

The interesting thing is, when you train for function and athleticism, the form almost always follows the function. Train like an athlete and you will look like an athlete. Perhaps you won’t build the muscle bulk of a bodybuilder, but take a good look at wrestlers, gymnasts or boxers. There you have some of the most athletic people in the world, and it is no coincidence that in these sports you also see some of the finest physiques in the world as well.

Stop making lame excuses about your weight & start eating less, fatty. Stop obsessing about over training, trust me your not! Lose the ego and do more unilateral training. Cut out all that bench press and curling crap. That's just some of the advice you didn't want to hear from Part I. Now, even more fitness guidelines you probably don't want to hear. Sorry it's tough love.

1)Weight training is not a fitness program. It's part of a program.

2) We spend hours inactive, with slouched posture and shortened muscles. We need to fix that, and just adding weight and loading the structure isn't the key. We need a complete program.

3)Core Stability: Despite what some personal trainers are saying, the evidence is clear: You need to train the core for stability, and direct training activates the core more than indirect work. Spend a couple of minutes per workout on core stability.

4)Power: Every AbFitt reader should be power training. It's the quality we lose the fastest as we age, yet it's easy to keep. Make sure you have some explosive movements in your program — not necessarily with bars and dumbbells — maybe just some body weight stuff.

5)Energy System Development: Do your cardio, but remember to mix it up. Cardio doesn't mean "aerobics on the treadmill." Use kettle bells, sprints, boxing and complexes as well as longer-duration cardio. Remember it's just part of a complete program.

6)"Saturated fat is evil!" As a result, we're now in the middle of an obesity epidemic. Just look around the next time your in an airport.

7)Get serious about your upper back. You'll be amazed at the full body results.

8)The biggest problem with most people who train is that they know exactly what their biggest problem is! However they are not willing to make the changes needed to correct those very problems.

9)It never comes as a shock when I tell an overweight man or woman the results of his/her full physical assessment: "You are too fat."

Don't laugh. You probably have some glaring issues too... and you know it!

Exercise can help prevent chronic health conditions like obesity and arthritis, boost confidence and self-esteem by adding a feeling of strength and attractiveness as well as the knowledge you are doing something good for your body. These are just a few of the benefits from exercise regardless of age, sex or physical ability.

1. Exercise improves your mood.If you need to blow off some steam after a stressful day, a good workout at the gym or a brisk 30-minute walk can help you calm down.

Exercise stimulates various brain chemicals, which may leave you feeling happier and more relaxed than you were before you worked out. You'll also look better and feel better when you exercise regularly. This can boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem. Exercise even reduces feelings of depression and anxiety. If you tend to reach for a beer, try reaching for the treadmill it will help in a lot more ways.

Regular exercise can also help you prevent Type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and certain types of cancer.

3. Exercise helps you manage your weight.We all know that when you exercise, you burn calories. The more intensely you exercise, the more calories you burn - and the easier it is to keep your weight under control. You don't need to set aside major chunks of time for working out. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk during your lunch break. Turn off the TV and take a brisk walk. Dedicated workouts are great, but activity you accumulate throughout the day helps you burn calories, too. You'll keep the weight off, or take it off, and feel better.

4. Exercise strengthens your heart and lungs.Exercise delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and helps improve your entire cardiovascular system. The circulation of blood through your heart and blood vessels, work more efficiently. When your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you'll have more energy to do the things you enjoy. With more energy, you'll be able to accomplish more, spend more time with your family, etc. All this promotes the positive cycle of attitude, self-confidence and stress reduction.

6. Exercise can be fun!Exercise doesn't have to feel like a chore. Take a fitness boxing class. Check out a local climbing wall or hiking trail. Push your kids on the swings or climb with them on the jungle gym. Plan a neighborhood kickball or touch football game. Find an activity you enjoy, and go for it. If you're moving, it counts!

The world of boxing has been heralded for producing some of the fittest athletes in sports. The quality of a boxer's workout has received much attention nationwide and has taken a prominent place in the world of fitness as an effective and complete total body workout.

At AbFitt, I strive to provide you professional and knowledgeable boxing, fitness & nutritional information

Boxing for fitness is a fun, easy to learn workout that will get you mentally and physically into the best shape of your life. The benefits are upper and lower body strength, coordination, various punching and self defense techniques, cardiovascular endurance and stamina.

When compared to other exercise programs you will find that learning to box for fitness will give you superior results. Burning fat and calories comes naturally and looking fit and trim is the reward.

Combine this with weight training & great nutrition and your on your way to getting in the best shape of your life.

This is the chance I have been waiting for”, states Mahir Oral who will take on IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham on June 27th at Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin, Germany (live on Showtime). “When I heard that Arthur had chosen me as voluntary challenger I didn’t have to think twice. I agreed immediately. I have the chance to face the strongest middleweight fighter in the world today. They say to be the man you have to beat the man. This is what I will go to Berlin for. I want to pull the biggest upset of the year and show the world what I got..”

Muscle will only respond in advanced trainers or athletes with resistance. If the muscle is not presented with new challenges resistance, it has no reason to get stronger and build muscle or burn fat. Your body just has no reason to change it's composition or build lean muscle tissue, become faster & more explosive. Sorry those hours you spend on the treadmill, well you have just trained to spend hours on the treadmill and have done very little in changing the way you look & feel. No! Not my opinion but studied and proven science!

With H.I.G.T, my fitness program *high intensity group training* the basis is to stimulate new muscle development by recruiting type II (red)( fast twitch ) muscle fibers. Fibers that will only come into play when the muscle becomes over loaded, the lazy muscle fiber, however the fiber that is responsible for the way ultimetly you look ,feel, play & perform. H.I.G.T does this in two ways. When you have taxed your muscle, lets say with a set of dumbbell presses, most of the work was done with type one fibers (white) slow twitch, little to none of your type two (red) muscle fibers came into play. Again This studied & proven by science. (please visit Dr Paul Check.com)

However by immediately moving from one multi joint exercise, exercises that recruit the most muscle fibers to perform the movement, IE: squats, dead lifts, rows, etc..) to the next, up to four different exercises for different body parts in a set, type one fibers have become overworked, exhausted and force type two fibers to be recruited to come and assist, thus causing maximum damage to muscle fibers, taxing your respatory system & heart as well as burning loads of fat & calories. So with proper nutrition & rest new lean muscle tissue, a stronger heart and a efficient metabolism will ultimetly be achieved.

The second way is with intensity, in my routine I achieve this with little to no rest between sets. The body will respond two ways training this way. First, you will burn loads of calories and force the most important muscle in your body to work overtime. Your heart! Pretty much eliminating the need to do boring types of cardio to strip away fat and shed water. Secondly, with little to no rest you fatigue your type one fibers much faster than traditional one set and rest old school training. Thus conditioning your body to recruit faster, type two fibers. The muscle building lean for life, ripped as a Mother F@#!*! Type two ,fast twitch fiber! Listen you can bitch and wine about how your unhappy with your body. You can go through life being out of shape and lazy. Thats fine with me, but those of you who ask for guidence and hundreds do, then listen to these simple & very basic tips. Its your body, your health.

My H.I.G.T training will keep you lean & muscular for life, not to mention it is challenging and fun to do for woman as well as men, in time of course. At first you will be sending me hate mail.

Dumbell exercises are popular with gym users through elite athletes. They can be used exclusively to form a wide variety of strength training programs, or they can be used to compliment a program that uses resistance machines, barbells or resistance bands for example.

Dumbells are often favored over weights machines and when performed correctly they are equally as safe. Dumbell exercises incorporate stabilizing muscles helping to develop a balanced posture and perhaps reducing the risk of over-use injuries. They also allow you to work through a potentially greater range of movement than resistance machines.

Most people asking me for guidance on building abdominal muscles usually ask how to lose belly fat or get ripped abs. Although these things are great to strive for, there are also tremendous health benefits for having a strong ab section. Having a strong mid-section is beneficial for your back; especially your lower back. In This day in age, we spend most of our time sitting at a desk, sitting in a car, or sitting on the couch. Studies have shown that those with a bigger waistline are more prone to back problems. If steps aren’t taken now to strengthen your abdominals, by the time you are old and gray, it is going to be very difficult to accomplish even simple everyday things.

Having strong abs also reduces sport and other activity related injuries. During the course of playing a sport or exercising it is important that your abs be able to compensate for any sudden jerks, twists or turns. Strong abdominals will lessen your chance for injury considerably.

By strengthening your core and tightening your lower back, your posture will also improve. Having a healthy posture will also reduce back problems.

Finally, just the act of working your abdominal muscles will increase your body’s core strength and burn calories! You will also feel great afterwards.

I will never forget the day in the gym that I learned the boxing tip that I call the jab tap. My trainer could have told me how to do it, but instead I learned the hard way during one of many sparring sessions. This day I ended up with a very bloody nose. I flicked a jab out at his head and from out of absolutely nowhere I got clocked with a straight right that rattled every bone in my face. After I recovered from the shock, I was in complete disbelief. How did he manage to punch through my jab with a right?

If you think about the mechanics for this boxing tip, two orthodox stances facing off leave very little room for a straight right to land on target when one opponent is throwing a jab. If you follow a straight line from chin to chin, the punches would end up hitting each other midway -- they basically follow the same line. Thus, the only way to land that straight right is to come in at a different angle or move the jab out of the way.

Well, turns out the second method is what happened to me. As my jab neared my trainer, he very quickly tapped it downward with an ever so slight tap as he began to throw a straight right. With the jab deflected downward, my face was wide open and he seized the opportunity turning the forward motion of the tap into a full out straight right that was completely unobstructed going in. The rest is history. It was a hard learned lesson.

I am so grateful for learning that lesson though, because it has come in handy more than once. It is one of those boxing tips that drives home the requirement for perfect timing in boxing. The ability to anticipate someone's move and use their offense in your own offense is what makes this sport so incredible. This boxing tip is also a counter attack.

The right uppercut is a very powerful and effective inside punch. The target must be at short or medium range punch distance. The uppercut is directed either high, towards the head under the chin, or low to the body, often in the solar plexus area. The uppercut can be thrown effectively with either the right hand or the left hand, with the right uppercut being slightly more powerful. To throw a right uppercut, start in the classic boxing stance with the back (right) knee bent. Lower the right shoulder to drop the right side of the body in a semi-crouch position. Remember to keep the left fist up by the chin to protect the head. Now as you rotate the hips forward, push the ball of the back foot, (the right foot), and punch the right fist up towards the target. The right side of the back and the right shoulder will follow through with the rotation of the hips. The hips finish being squared to the front. The right arm always stays close to the body and moves upward in a semi-circle.

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Most woman join a gym for one reason- to lose weight. I’m going to let you in on a trade secret among fitness professionals - eating less plus exercising more equals losing weight. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, I'll explain why not learning how to box could cost you in the long run.

First let me ask you a question - is losing weight going to help you keep your job? Unless you're a horse jockey or a fashion model, the answer is probably no. Boxing is a learning process, and the ring is the class room. We don’t focus on what you lose, but what you gain. Losing ten pounds of fat will be short lived if it isn’t replaced by twenty pounds of confidence – the confidence that comes from being good, not just looking good. I tend to look at life as a boxing match, not a beauty contest. Both show a lot of skin, but only one shows a lot of heart. When times get tough, would you rather be wearing high heels or boxing shoes? Boxing makes you tougher - mentally, physically and emotionally. walking on a treadmill may relieves stress, but boxing builds character too. Hitting a heavybag & some weights will get rid of the stress you have today and make it easier for you to handle tomorrow.

Thinking on your feet, dealing with pressure and staying focused are skills you don’t pick up on a treadmill, but in the ring you become a master of these skills. Try it you will soon see yourself in a different light.

A fighter is a metaphor. It’s a metaphor for anyone who doesn’t want to take life lying down and get counted out. It’s a metaphor for anyone who believes that having abs of steel doesn’t mean you have guts, and doing cardio doesn’t give you heart. Looking good may be important, but being good is critical. Taking step class is great, but when it looks like the world is crashing down, it might take some fancy footwork to avoid the pitfalls.

Training like a fighter not only gets you in great physical shape, but mental and emotional shape as well. When times get tough, having nerves of steel and the heart of a lion might help. Being razor sharp and ready for battle will see you through the rough times. Boxing helps you keep your cool while everyone else is going down in flames.

Although the first image of a "fighter" you might conjure up is a guy with a broken nose and cauliflower ears, I want to show you what our version of a fighter looks like. Stand in front of a mirror, pick up your hands and make a fist. That person looking back at you is a fighter.

Squats are one of the best lower body exercises you can do. Why? One reason is that squats are multi-joint exercises which target all the muscles of the hips, glutes and thighs. The chair squat which requires no weights or equipment (other than a chair) is great for beginners, for anyone with knee problems or for those who are overweight and need a bit more support. It's also great for anyone wanting to add more functionality into their lives because it mimics the movements we do each time we sit down or stand up.

A boxer's training depends largely on the point in their career at which she or he is situated. If the boxer is just a beginner, a minimal training routine might consist of learning how to hit the heavy bag, the speed bag, and the double end bag (a small bag with a cord on top and bottom connecting it to the floor and ceiling) as well as doing shadowboxing in front of a mirror, skipping, calisthenics and jogging every day, as well as an occasional practice bout inside the ring (sparring). Most beginning boxers will spend most of their early careers conditioning and establishing the fundamentals.

For the amateur or professional boxer preparing for a competition or bout, however, training is much more stringent. This could include getting up at 5 am to jog, flying to a far away place to get isolated during 2 or more months before the fight, dieting, doing the same gym routine as a beginner, only that twice every day, and getting to the city hosting the fight two weeks before the fight to get used to the location's climate. Boxing is widely considered one of the most physically demanding sports in the world.

WeightBoxing, like several other fighting sports, categorizes its competitors into weight classes. Some fighters try to take advantage of this by dieting before weigh-in so that they can be bumped down a weight class. In extreme cases, a fighter may forego solid food before the official weigh-in ceremony, and eat a lot afterward to compensate. In some very extreme cases, boxers have been forced to stop eating solid food up to three days before the weigh-in ceremony, in order to make weight for the fight. Sometimes, if a boxer doesn't make the weight agreed for on the first weight-in, he or she might go to a sauna or to jog with a jacket to sweat and lose the extra pounds, however this is mainly water that the body holds.

A boxer will generally try to have the maximum weight possible within the Boxing weight classes (s)he is fighting in, as a good boxer will be able to use his weight to his advantage

SparringHigh quality sparring is the best method to train in boxing. Sparring is "practice fighting" with the aim of training skills and fitness, not to determine a winner. Sparring should always involve use of a gumshield, head-guard and groin-guard. Sparring gloves are often more padded than gloves used in actual bouts. Sparring partners sometimes agree to practice particular types of punches or defense moves to focus their training.

Body Sparring refers to sparring where only hits to the body are allowed, not to the head. This is often used to reduce the risk of injury or for inexperienced boxers starting out in the sport.

Muscle will only respond in advanced trainers or athletes with resistance. If the muscle is not presented with new challenges ( resistance ) it has no reason to adapt and grow. Your body has no reason to change( body ) composition ( burn fat, build lean muscle tissue, become faster & more explosive ).

With H.I.G.T, my fitness program ( high intensity group training ) the basis is to stimulate new muscle development by recruiting type II (red)( fast twitch ) muscle fibers. Fibers that will only come into play when the muscle becomes over loaded ( the lazy muscle fiber ). H.I.G.T does this in two ways. When you have taxed your muscle lets say with a set of dumbbell presses, most of the work was done with type one fibers (white) ( slow twitch ) little to none of your type two (red) muscle fibers came into play. This studied & proven by science.

However by immediately moving from one multi joint exercise ( exercises that recruit the most muscle fibers to perform the movement, IE: squats, dead lifts, rows, etc..) to the next, up to four different exercises for different body parts in a set, type one fibers have become overworked and force type two fibers to come and assist, thus causing maximum damage and with proper nutrition & rest new tissue.

The second way is with intensity, in my routine I achieve this with little to no rest between sets. The body will respond two ways training this way. First, you will burn loads of calories and force the most important muscle in your body to work overtime. Your heart! Pretty much eliminating the need to do boring types of cardio to strip away fat and shed water. Secondly, with little to no rest you fatigue your type one fibers much faster than traditional one set and rest old school training. Thus conditioning your body to recruit faster, type two fibers. The muscle building lean for life, ripped as a Mother F@#!*! Type two ,fast twitch fiber!

My H.I.G.T training will keep you lean & muscular for life, not to mention it is challenging and fun to do, in time of course. At first you will be sending me hate mail.

Although there are many schools of thought as to proper nutrition for athletes and plenty of fad diets that come and go, fighters understand there are certain basics essential to their craft.

It is better to eat many smaller meals throughout the days than a few larger ones. Carbohydrates are necessary sources of energy that must be replenished regularly while training. Complex carbohydrates from natural food sources such as oatmeal and fruit are ideal. Best practice is to eat them three hours in advance of a workout, unless of course you are using a quick boost energy drink during a session.

Try to eat natural foods, free of preservatives and dyes. Processed foods like white bread should be avoided at all cost in that they have very little nutritional value. Go with whole grain products instead. Sufficient protein must be eaten while training to support muscle healing and growth. While many fighters supplement their intake with protein shakes, adequate intake of lean beef, fish, and eggs, will also do the trick.

Avoid soda and other high sugar drinks and snacks. Nothing packs on unnecessary weight quicker. Drink plenty of water. Deep fried and fatty foods are a no-no for every fighter who takes his nutrition seriously. Baked and broiled items are much healthier. Watch your fat, especially saturated fats. They are killers. Don’t confuse them with essentially fatty acids found in fish. By following these few simple principles, maintaining or losing weight for a fight should require little additional effort, aside from intense fitness training.

maximum training and body conditioning is through a solid diet coupled with a superior nutrition strategy. This requires eating a balanced diet of protein sources such as meat, fish, eggs and milk. Round this out with fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Finally, top it all off with lots and lots of hardcore training.

How do I know that I am getting enough nutrients to feed my fight training and workout schedule?

Simple nutrition test:

Do you feel that you have plenty of energy before during and after a workout?

Do you get muscle cramps?

Are your workouts exhausting rather than invigorating?

Are you easily distracted?

Do you have difficulty maintaining focus and concentration during the day?

Do you start out on strong in a fight only to lose steam before being able to finish the job?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions then your nutrition program is in need of an update

Live Fit, Be Fit, ABFITT.

Combining the warrior sport of boxing with the science of fitness & nutrition. Helping you live a fit, healthy lifestyle. Providing the tools needed to accomplish your fitness goals and the science to elevate your athletic ability. I simply practice what I preach here on AbFitt 24-7 365 days a year. Live Fit, Be Fit.